Standard Chartered has agreed to pay $340 million to settle accusations it potentially violated U.S. regulations.

GREECE SEEKS TWO-YEAR AUSTERITY EXTENSION

Greece will seek a two-year extension of its latest austerity programme at talks next week with Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande.

LIB DEMS PUSH TO REOPEN BANK REFORM

Nick Clegg and Vince Cable are leading a push to reopen talks on UK banking reforms in a move that could stoke coalition tensions.

SPANISH SAVERS OFFERED HAIRCUT THEN MONEY BACK

Spain is in talks with Brussels to allow retail clients who bought savings products from now nationalised lenders to avoid losing their investments as part of Spain's bailout.

ICAHN'S SON HONES SKILLS WITH $3 BLN FUND

Carl C Icahn, the hedge fund manager and activist scourge of U.S. boardrooms, has given $3 billion of his fortune to his son.

MANGANESE BRONZE GOES SOUTH ON IT ERROR

Investors have piled out of Manganese Bronze after the maker of one of London's black cab, blamed errors in its IT system for a 3.9 million pound ($6.12 million) accounting black hole.

KIEV TO OPT FOR EXXON MOBIL AND SHELL BID

Ukraine has approved a joint offshore exploration bid led by ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell to unlock oil and gas reserves deep under the Black Sea.

RIM PREPARES NEXT BLACKBERRY GENERATION

Research In Motion has begun manufacturing "beta" or test units of its next generation BlackBerry 10 devices.

EURO ZONE EDGES BACK TOWARDS RECESSION

The euro zone edged closer towards its second recession in three years as the single currency bloc contracted in the second quarter

NYT

* Standard Chartered has agreed to pay New York's top banking regulator $340 million to settle claims that it laundered hundreds of billions of dollars in tainted money for Iran and lied to regulators.

* As Russia's military has cut back Kalashnikov purchases, American enthusiasts have started buying civilian versions of weapons manufactured by the same factory.

* Spanish construction rivals Actividades de Construcción y Servicios (ACS) and Judlau Contracting -- 51 percent owned by OHL -- who are working on the Long Island Rail Road extension project, have traded charges over who is responsible for a $250 million loss.

* Growth in Germany in the second quarter was not strong enough to compensate for persistent recession in Spain and Italy, data released on Tuesday showed.

* Wells Fargo settled a case with the Securities and Exchange Commission involving investments in asset-backed commercial paper that it sold to nonprofit groups, local governments and other investors.

* Mark Thompson, 55, is the departing director general of the British Broadcasting Corp He will join the Times Company in early November.

* Fisker Automotive, the struggling manufacturer of luxury plug-in hybrid cars, has chosen Tony Posawatz, who led the development of the Chevrolet Volt, as chief executive, the company announced in a teleconference on Tuesday.

Canada

* Canada should double the number of international students studying here by 2022, a new report commissioned by the federal government says.

The task force responsible for the report, headed by Western University president Amit Chakma, wants Ottawa to boost the number of international students from about 239,130 to 450,000 in 10 years - from kindergarten through Grade 12 and post-secondary institutions - without taking away seats from Canadians.

Report in the business section:

* In more ways than one, the economic downturn has been Canada's time to shine. Now we can add climbing business investment to a bragging list that already includes a rock star central banker, a stable financial system and a relatively strong employment rebound since the downturn.

Canada is on track to spend more on capital investment per worker than the average in OECD countries in 2012, the best relative performance since collection of this kind of comparative data began in the early 1990s, according to a report released last week by the C.D. Howe Institute in Toronto.

* The future of 20,000 of the best-paying jobs in Canada's battered manufacturing centre is on the line as the Canadian Auto Workers union seeks to reverse concessions that helped keep auto makers afloat during the recession, while the companies insist labor costs must be cut at what they say are the most expensive plants in the world.

FINANCIAL POST

* If the past month has been a cooling off period for B.C. and Alberta in the heated dispute over royalties from the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, relations may be turning downright icy.

Alberta Premier Alison Redford was in Clark's backyard Tuesday where she reiterated that she has not and will not be meeting with her B.C. counterpart to discuss any sharing of Alberta royalties from the proposed multibillion-dollar pipeline project.

* The head of the Canadian Auto Workers sent a stern warning to the Detroit Three Tuesday to break with their pattern of seeking more concessions from workers as contract talks between the parties kicked off.

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So Standard Charter helped Iranians (not Iran, big difference Bloomberg) get money out of the US for over a decade. Probably because Iranians have been fearful of the US government unilaterally declaring them "terrorists" and freezing their assets in the US. Who wants to take bets that the Bush Administration was all over this? That they looked at the $250bn in supposedly laundering money and thought it was for pillaging after 9/11...

Think the CIA is just going to the Iranian Revolution in the 1970s just die without payback 30 years later? Not with Bush the Younger in office at the time.